Miniatures One + Two

As the producer of Miniatures, I appreciated the great comment from Mr. 50! Your review was regarding a download version, but of course this listing is for the current double-CD version, which includes all the original sleeve notes and more.

The track listing here (as of August 1, 2012) is completely inaccurate - Disk 1 does not have 12 tracks, it has 53 tracks (in 12 groups); Disk 2 does not have 98 tracks, it has 60 tracks. I have informed Amazon. Here is the correct listing:

MINIATURES 1:
1. Ollie Halsall & John Halsey - Bum Love
2. The Residents - We're A Happy Family + Bali Ha'i
3. Roger Mcgough - The Wreck Of The Hesperus
4. Morgan Fisher - Green And Pleasant
5. John Otway - Mine Tonight
6. Pete Challis & Phil Diplock - My Way
7. Robert Wyatt - Rangers In The Nights
8. Stinky Winkles - Opus
9. Mary Longford - Body Language
10. Andy 'Thunderclap' Newman - Andy The Dentist
11. David Bedford - Wagner's Ring In One Minute
12. Fred Frith - The Entire Works Of Henry Cow
13. Maggie Nicols - Look Beneath The Surface
14. Joseph Racaille - Week-End
15. The Work - With Wings Pressed Back
16. Neil Innes & Son - Cum On Feel The Noize
17. Herbert Distel - Toscany In Blue (Last Minute)
18. Lol Coxhill - An End To The Matter
19. Ken Ellis - One Minute In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
20. Steve Miller - Alice
21. Norman Lovett - John Peel Sings The Blues Badly
22. Patrick Portella - Serrons Nous Les Coudes
23. George Melly - Sounds That Saved My Life
24. Robert Fripp - Miniature
25. Andy Partridge (XTC) - The History Of Rock'n'Roll
26. Phantom Captain - Breather
27. Ron Geesin - Enterbrain Exit
28. Alejandro Viñao - An Imaginary Orchestrina
29. Quentin Crisp - Stop The Music For A Minute
30. Simon Desorgher - Tetrad
31. Ralph Steadman - Sweetest Love (Lament After A Broken Sashcord On A Theme Of John Donne)
32. R.D.Laing & Son - Tipperary
33. Trevor Wishart - Beach Double
34. John White - Scene De Ballet
35. Ivor Cutler - Brooch Boat
36. Hector Zazou - Do Tell Us
37. Michael Bass & Ellen Tenenbaum - A Miniaturization Of Bartok's Sonata For Two Pianos & Percussion (3rd Movement)
38. Martin Chambers (The Pretenders) - A Swift One
39. Bob Cobbing & Henri Chopin - Refreshment Break
40. Dave Vanian (The Damned) - Night Touch
41. Metabolist - Racing Poodles
42. Gavin Bryars - After Mendelssohn (137 Years)
43. 1/2 Japanese - Paint It Black
44. Simon Jeffes (Penguin Cafe Orchestra) - Arthur's Treat
45. Mark Perry - Talking World War Iii Blues
46. Michael Nyman - 89-90-91-92
47. David Cunningham (The Flying Lizards) - Index Of Ends
48. Kevin Coyne - James, Mark & Me (In The Manner Of Tom Waits)
49. Etron Fou Leloublan - Hep!
50. Neil Oram & Ken Campbell & The Science Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool - The Minute Warp
51. Pete Seeger - Chorale From Beethoven's 9th Symphony
52. No Artists - One Minutes Silence
53. All Artists - The Miniatures Miniature

MINIATURES 2:
1. Jean Houston - Jump Time
2. John Paul Jones - It's Coming (A Fanfare For The Millennium)
3. Linton Kwesi Johnson - Beacon Of Hope
4. Talitha Mackenzie - Chakras
5. Hugh Cornwell - 2000 Lights
6. Piero Milesi - Minute Quartet
7. Howard Jones - Atoms And Stars
8. Kazufumi Miyazawa - One Minute Blackout
9. Klaus Trabitsch - Jodler
10. BJ Cole - Newgrange Aeon Fragment
11. Terry Riley - A Dog Barks At Midnight
12. Michael Nyman - Here's To The Next One
13. Meredith Monk - Panda Chant II
14. Sainkho Namtchylak - Last Christmas
15. Jill Purce - The Healing Voice
16. Dagmar Andrtová - Little Orchestra Of Disaster And Hope
17. Wolfgang Mitterer - Solo No.3
18. Phillip k. Bimstein - Garland Hirschi's Cows
19. Piano Circus - Red
20. Robert Fripp & Trey Gunn - Blast
21. Isao Osada & Takuro A - Un
22. David Cunningham - Oxalis
23. Penguin Cafe Orchestra - A Pythagorean Roll
24. Sizzle Ohtaka - One Cell
25. Hermeto Pascoal - Feira De Asakusa (Asakusa Market)
26. Chris Hughes - Shaka Shaka Shaka
27. Dissidenten - Light Of Love
28. Christos Hatzis - Hunter's Dream
29. Baka Beyond -Timeless
30. Ottmar Liebert - Freedom (Universal Mix)
31. Mamadou Doumbia - Qui Sait?
32. Tananas - Ashtanga
33. Koto Vortex - Sae
34. Michael Shrieve & Jeff Greinke - Invisible Guides
35. Gavin Bryars - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Miniature)
36. Jane Siberry - The Narrow Bridge
37. Laurie Spiegel - Soundtrack For Sandin
38. Chéng Gongliang - Ghu Zu Jun
39. John Fiddler - Another 21st Century Day
40. Nastya - Islands
41. Geoffrey Richardson - The Lighthouse
42. Thomas De Hartmann - Gurdjieff/De Hartmann Music
43. Peadar Óriada - Seascad Siocand I Dtreo Millennium (Sixty Seconds Towards A Millennium)
44. Daniel Figgis - Fail Better
45. The Deep Season - Theme For The Peaceful Revolution
46. Heat Wave - Takeda No Komori Uta
47. Woof Woof - Passion Sauce
48. The Minus 5 - Came Saw Stayed
49. Morgan Fisher - Flowers Of Silence
50. Komitas Vardapet - Gutan Yerg
51. David Darling - Introspection
52. Lol Coxhill - Six To Four
53. Trans Global Underground - Dead Dog Of Kairouan
54. The Levellers - Hope Street (Rain Chant Remix)
55. Chris Butler - Have A Nice Century!
56. Moondog (Louis Hardin) - Cosmicode
57. Ashik Peter Lynch - Snow
58. Tokiko Kato - Toorina
59. Jane Campion - Passionless Moments
60. Milladoiro - Alal Ádas Mariñas

I am writing a blog on this album, where you will be able to hear full-length tracks and read the full sleeve notes and copious extra comments, news, links, etc. It's here:

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Enjoy!

Morgan Fisher

I am STUNNED to see this wonderful obscurity from 1980 available here. For those unfamiliar with it, a gentleman by the name of Morgan-Fisher invited about 50 creative-types (mostly Brits, but a few American artists such as The Residents and 1/2 Japanese make the cut as well) to submit an audio piece for this compilation; the only stipulation was that the piece should be no longer than 60 seconds in length. From the well-known to the virtually unknown, musicians, composers, visual artists, and performance artists turn in such a wide variety of vignettes that it's impossible to categorize the contents except to say that the results are generally interesting, unusual, and often funny. My favorites are George Melly performing an excerpt from Kurt Scwitters "Ur Sonata" and British art-punk band Metabolist doing an amazing (and much too brief) piece entitled "Racing Poodles".

This comp is highly recommended for anyone into avant-garde spoken-word/music expressionism, but I must offer one caveat here: because this is only available via download, you will miss out on the EXTENSIVE liner notes that accompanied the original vinyl release, and in some cases, those notes provided a crucial context for understanding what the artist was doing (such as in the above-mentioned piece by Melly). For this reason, I can only give this a 4-star rating.